this evening, president obama telling congress, the american people are watching what we're doing here. he appeared in the briefing room a short time ago. let's go right to jon carl tonight. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, david. there are finally signs of life here in washington. after meeting with congressional leaders here at the white house, the president pronounced himself modestly optimistic that a bipartisan agreement can finally be struck that would prevent taxes from going up on virtually everybody in just four days. after meeting with the congressional leaders, the president said there would be one more effort to come to a bipartisan agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff. >> the hour for immediate action is here. it is now. and the american people are not going to have any patience for a politically, self-inflicted wound to our economy. >> reporter: there are signs of progress. mitch mcconnell and harry reid have agreed to spend the next 24 hours trying to come to a bipartisan agreement on a smaller fallback plan to keep at least some taxes from going up. after the mee